


Weatherby

by EssayOfThoughts



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Begrudging Compliance, Character Study, During Canon, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 07:06:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11330919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EssayOfThoughts/pseuds/EssayOfThoughts
Summary: The law protects no one now. Criminals allowed to wander freely, innocents locked up, except he has to remember - Death Eaters are “the loyal witches and wizards, working towards a better future” and muggle borns are “vile thieves, taking magic from the righteous”.If he remembers this enough, maybe he’ll start to believe it. Maybe then he’ll be truly safe.





	Weatherby

**Author's Note:**

  * For [malapropism](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malapropism/gifts).



> Written because I saw a prompt for the [Obscuro challenge ](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/obscuro_2016) that I seriously considered before deciding against it in favour of Aberforth.

His day starts by emptying his inbox. It’s always done by lunch and always full again by the evening. Percy doesn’t mind. So long as he is busy he has a job. So long as he has a job he’s a Loyal Ministry Employee. So long as he’s a Loyal Ministry Employee people will ignore his surname.

(He feels slightly like a traitor for that.)

 

* * *

 

Percy gets coffee at eleven o’clock, on the dot. If he was at home he’d have tea, and that’s exactly why he has coffee - he doesn’t want to remember home. If he remembers home he’ll get nostalgic, if he gets nostalgic he’ll stop working, if he stops working he doesn’t have a job.

If he doesn’t have a job people will notice his surname. They’ll ask him questions like, “So what’s a blood traitor like  _ you _ doing  _ here?” _

Percy doesn’t have answers for those questions. He doesn’t even want to fight. He’d always trusted that the law would protect him.

 

* * *

 

The law protects no one now. Criminals allowed to wander freely, innocents locked up, except he has to remember - Death Eaters are “the loyal witches and wizards, working towards a better future” and muggle borns are “vile thieves, taking magic from the righteous”.

If he remembers this enough, maybe he’ll start to believe it. Maybe then he’ll be truly safe.

 

* * *

 

Andromeda Tonks, head up, shoulders back, all the pride and bearing of a scion of the House of Black, pokes her head into his office today.

“Weatherby,” she says, and oh he _ detests _ that nickname now, but at the same time it’s a measure of protection. “Come along. You’re having tea with me today.”

It’s half past ten and it only takes seven minutes to get to the break kitchen, but he goes with her because she’s a superior and another Pureblood and  _ somehow _ despite being disowned she’s managed to salvage her place in the Ministry.

Percy assumes she must know what she’s doing.

 

* * *

 

The tea she makes is black as his coffee usually is, a yellow halfmoon of lemon floating against the dark. Percy watches the tea gradually stain the lemon darker, the lemon stain the tea lighter as Andromeda Tonks sips her tea, watching him closely.

“The world is changing,” she says. “And we must all make our decisions.”

Percy nods.

“Sometimes,” she says, “the decision is simple. To side with family, to side with our blood,-” (but she had sided with her family and against her blood. For him, they are one and the same) “-to side with progress, to side with the ministry.”  _ (she’s taking the piss, _ he thinks briefly.  _ She’s just listing things.) _ “Eventually,” she says, “we reach a point of no return. That is when we must make the final decision.”

There is a message in these words. He knows, very clearly, that Ted Tonks, her husband, was killed by Snatchers earlier today. It was on the Wireless.  _ Magic-thief and seducer of Andromeda Black, Ted Tonks was killed today fleeing justice _ .

Andromeda is still here.

“I,” Percy says carefully, “Am a Loyal Ministry Employee.”

She must hear the capital letters clanging into place, because she smiles.

 

* * *

 

Percy takes his cup of tea back to his cubicle. It’s not how mum made tea at home. Mum made tea strong but milky, and added sugar or honey or nothing else depending on who she made it for. Dad was three sugars. She had one. Bill had added nothing but he drank spiced tea now. Charlie had switched to coffee in his third year at Hogwarts so he could stay up all night reading about dragons. The twins didn’t care and filled their tea with so much honey there was always sludge at the bottom. Ron drank his tea however it was given to him, Ginny was one sugar. Percy had no sugars. 

He drinks the tea - ignores the cutting bite of the lemon to taste the tea itself, and, for a moment, he can almost hear the noise of the Burrow.

Then he sets his cup down, pushes it to one side, and gets back to work.

He is, after all, a Loyal Ministry Employee.

 

* * *

 

The world is changing around him. He can feel it even as he dares not look. He hears it each day on the Wireless, a tally of muggle-borns taken away and killed, executed for the crime of their birth.

But he can’t think like that. He mustn’t. More and more of the higher-ups will rake every mind before them with magic, seek out lies and hidden agendas and now, more than ever, he must believe what he has never been able to believe before. He must hate those who have done him no harm, must look kindly on those he has always hated - must look at the masked faces of those who might have killed Uncle Fabian and Uncle Gideon and not rail and rage and scream at them for their murder but fold his hands into his lap, hold his papers more tightly and keep his head down.

He’s a loyal Ministry employee.

And he doesn’t want to be.

 

* * *

 

He does his paperwork. It’s full in the morning, empty by noon, and full again in the evening. He tries not to read the words: lists of witches and wizards being brought in and locked away hidden between the lines of Cauldron Bottom Thickness legislation, being blamed for every pureblood failure in every way they can wrangle it. He focusses on the words before him, not the ones hidden between, closes his eyes to the horrible truth because if he acknowledges it he cannot accept it.

If he cannot accept it, he’s no longer a loyal ministry employee.

 

* * *

 

There’s whispers. Stories that Ron broke in, with Hermione and Harry, they they stole something, shamed the Death Eater-Aurors and are gone again like the wind. He’s not sure if he missed this before or if it’s new - he’s always been behind on gossip and this is gossip that would be kept from him besides.

He drinks his coffee, he reads his paperwork.

He wears the mask of a loyal ministry employee and inside his stomach roils.

 

* * *

 

He has his coffee, shares lemon-tinted tea with Andromeda Tonks, goes about his day.

Each day starts by emptying his inbox. He’s still always done by lunch and it’s still always full again by the evening. He doesn’t mind; he can’t mind. So long as he is busy he has a job. So long as he has a job he’s a Loyal Ministry Employee. So long as he’s a Loyal Ministry Employee people will ignore his surname.

(He knows he is a traitor for that. But he knows his family would rather see him alive than dead.)

 

* * *

 

The troubles rise around his shoulders and he keeps his head down, remembers what he hears and focusses on his work. He must be a Loyal Ministry Employee, must or he is dead and he learns to hate the blanket of protection that curls around his shoulders.

He was a loyal ministry employee. He has no reason to be any more.

 

* * *

 

“Weasley.”

The voice is calm and certain, resolute and proud. Andromeda Tonks is standing in the doorway.

“It’s time,” she says. “You have to make your choice.”

Percy rises from his desk, sets his paperwork afire and follows her to the Floo.

“To mine,” she says. “Then you go on to the Hog’s Head.”

He doesn’t ask why she isn’t going too, he doesn’t need to. Andromeda Tonks has known her place in the world since her family disowned her and she made her own family out of nothing. Percy’s family never disowned him and he’s been stuck in limbo ever since. 

He hopes they will forgive him.

 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave comments!


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